Foreword: Here is the newest chapter! As I was writing the last few chapters, I found out that my story is not very Nancy-like. In other words, I didn't put any major trouble or danger before. But now, I'm putting in a little something that Nancy always does in almost every mystery. Anyway, this chapter has action, like the previous two chapters, and some majorly important hints. If you read carefully, you'll know who one of the killers might be! But remember: don't trust everything you read. There may be a few red herrings... :-)

So, this story is more than halfway done, but there are still 8 more chapters to go! I can assure you that this story will be finished by the end of May. And starting from the summer vacation, I'll be writing a new story. In fact, I have the next story all plotted out, but I still need time to polish the plan and to add more details to it.

If you haven't realized already, there are four total mysteries in this story. The first one is the burglary at Nancy's house. The second mystery is the hauntings at the old mansion. The third one is the murder. And the last one is the hidden treasure in Piermont Estate. Are they connected to each other?

The next mystery I'll be writing will have one case that is consisted of three total mysteries with three different tricks!

Speaking of tricks, can you figure out how the killer got into the locked room or stay hidden during a thorough search of the room? If you want more hints, you should reread all the previous chapters (especially Chapter 10).

But there is one more mystery: which detective will solve the mystery? Will it be Callie? Ned? Nancy? Frank? Or even Joe? Which of the five detectives do you think will unveil the killer? To find out...well, you have to wait. :-)

Chapter 11

Fruitful Searches

"What do you think that means?" asked Joe curiously.

"I have no idea," answered Mr. Nguyen, "but I moved out of the house immediately afterwards, thinking that the maniac was serious. I could've been killed if I stayed there long enough!"

"How do you know?"

"Well, that's just my guess. But the message itself was written with real blood! I'd say, it was written using cow's blood, but that scared the heck out of me!"

Joe nodded. "Okay, thanks for your cooperation," he said and hung up. Then, he called Frank. The dark-haired detective answered.

"Frank, you should hear what I found out."

"What is it?"

"It's about the mansion," Joe said. He then told his brother the entire investigation.

Frank nodded as he listened. "Okay, so maybe the killer knew about this incident beforehand," he said. "If he didn't, then he wouldn't think about writing a message in blood."

Nancy was listening to the conversation, and she frowned. "So do you think the killer was the same person who vandalized this estate twenty years ago?"

Frank shrugged. "Maybe. If the killer and the vandal were one person, then he or she must be at least forty to fifty years old now."

Callie imagined the suspects in her mind. "So the suspects now are Edna, Xavier, and Gary. The others are all in their late twenties or early thirties."

Nancy nodded. "And that would be quite possible. But do you really think that June wasn't involved with the vandalism?"

"She could be, but now, our prime suspects are those three that I mentioned." Callie then looked at Frank. "So did Joe find anything more?"

Frank shrugged after asking Joe the same question. Hanging up, Frank told the detectives, "We should investigate those three suspects a little closer." He grinned. "And I'm sure Xavier and Gary must have a lot to tell us."

The clock in the dining room rang, and the detectives noticed that it was six o'clock already.

"Ugh. I'm really getting hungry now," said Callie. "We should first eat. Then, we should investigate more."

Callie, Nancy, Frank, and Ned all went to the lobby to decide what to investigate next. "The only bad thing is that everybody is in their room most of the times," said Nancy. "Therefore, we can't search their rooms when they are still inside. And if we can't search, then we can't find any clue!"

Ned thought of something. "Wait," he said, "don't eat dinner just yet! Maybe this could be the chance for us to search the guests' rooms!"

"Huh?" asked Callie, confused. Then, she understood. "Oh… I see… So one of us should stay in our room and wait till everyone else goes to the dining room. Then, he or she slips out and enters the suspects' rooms."

"But who will the one be?" asked Frank.

After thinking for a while, Ned pointed to Nancy. "I vote for Nancy. After all, she is the master when it comes to picking locks."

Nancy, after thinking for a few seconds, nodded. "Okay," she agreed.

Everything was quiet once again. Nancy, who was in her room waiting, looked at the cell phone which Ned had given her. "Remember," he had said, "to get out when Frank calls you on the phone. You don't have to answer the call."

Taking a deep breath, she took out her hairpin and waited. But as she did so, her mind kept wandering to the killer's plan. Was his murder show over? Or was the murderer planning to slay another victim?

She then thought about her mother. Could the second victim be the person who sat on the passenger's seat in the car that killed her mother?

A drop of tear rolled down the girl's cheek. She missed her mother very badly. She took out her pendant and opened it. Inside, her mother's face smiled warmly at her. Nancy closed the trinket and put it away into her purse. Then, she covered her face with her hands and wept silently.

"Mom, I miss you…" she muttered, wiping away her tears.

"What a wonderful dinner!" exclaimed Callie just as the dinner was brought into the dining room.

Frank nodded and quietly took out his cell phone. After making sure that everybody was in the dining room, he called Ned's phone.

The ringing of her boyfriend's cell phone brought Nancy back from her daydreaming. She immediately opened it and then closed it. As she put the phone away, she silently opened the door and went out of the room.

The first room she went to was Henri's. The most suspicious suspect stayed in Room 10, and she immediately got the door unlocked. Stepping inside, she locked the door behind her and turned the lights on. She turned to the laptop which was on the table. Immediately, she turned the switch on.

Fortunately, she didn't need a password to log on. Immediately, Nancy noticed the folder which had the name "Drew" on it.

"Could this be about my mother?" she wondered. Opening it, she almost gasped in shock.

The document was not about Mrs. Drew; it was about Nancy herself!

Scrolling down, the girl detective saw that all the cases which she had encountered, from the one involving the old clock all the way to the one involving the mysterious pearls. Also, there were the recent ones, which included Missing in Action, Ocean of Deceit, and Out of Tune. She shivered as she took a cursory glance at the names of the cases and their descriptions.

"Why is Henri keeping notes about me?" she wondered. "I don't even think anybody else has more knowledge about my cases than he does!"

She knew that she didn't have much time. She closed the window and opened another one. A new window popped up and showed a blond boy standing beside an adult. "Wait a minute… The boy in this picture looks like…"

Nancy's eyes got wider. "Could this boy be Henri?" she wondered.

The girl detective minimized the window and looked at the other folders on the desktop. There was one labeled "Alphonse Piermont, circa 1896."

She opened it. The picture was in black and white. It showed a man with short black beard and a magician's hat. He wore a tuxedo with a cape and looked like an old-fashioned magician. Nancy nodded. Of course! This was the picture of the great magician himself!

But the girl detective saw a strange resemblance. She opened the minimized window and compared the two pictures.

"Oh, wow!" she muttered. "The man in the colored picture looks exactly like Piermont!"

She looked at the boy. "Could this man be Henri's father? But I don't see much resemblance…"

She saw another file on the desktop, but when she tried to open it, it requested for a password. Since she didn't know what it was, Nancy closed the file.

After that, Nancy found no more clues. Closing the laptop, the girl detective slipped out of the room and to the next most suspicious suspect's room. It was Amy's.

Nancy entered the room with ease. Then, she went to the table. On it were a laptop, a bottle of water, and a leather-bound notebook. She tried to open the notebook, but she found that it required a key of some sort. Sighing, she turned to the laptop.

There was nothing interesting on the computer, so Nancy closed it right away.

But she thought about Amy. Could she be hiding something from Nancy? As the girl detective got ready to leave, she saw another notebook placed underneath the suitcase. Curious, she opened it.

"What?" she gasped.

Nancy couldn't believe her eyes. The notebook was actually an album. Inside the album was a photograph of two women. One looked like Amy when she was younger, possibly a teenager, and the other one looked like…

"Mom!"

It was right; the older woman was Nancy's mother. Mrs. Drew was placing a hand on Amy's right shoulder, and Amy was holding a picture with one hand. She held a trophy with her other hand.

In shock, Nancy couldn't find a word to say. Her mind was blank. Everything didn't seem to make sense anymore, since she had more questions than answers.

"Why is Amy in this photograph with my mother?" Nancy wondered. The thought kept circling around her in her mind. The picture… The photograph… The trophy…

She shook her head again. "This must clearly be a clue," she murmured. "I should go tell the detectives about this."

But then, she stopped. "Hm?"

She stared at the picture. There seemed to be a third person in the picture. A girl stood just a few feet behind the two in the picture. She had reddish-blond hair and peach-colored shirt with blue pants.

"That's me!" murmured Nancy. "There's no mistake about it; this woman in the picture is my mom, and the girl in this picture is Amy!" She then looked at herself. "It seems that I was only three when this picture was taken."

After putting the album under the suitcase, Nancy went out of the room and into the third suspect's room.

Norma stayed in Room 12, and her room was as empty as the others' rooms. Nancy saw no laptop in the room, but she found a picture in the woman's wallet. In the picture, there were four people; a girl, a boy, a man, and a woman. They were all smiling at the camera. From the background, Nancy deduced that the photograph was taken in an amusement park.

Looking at the girl, Nancy thought she resembled Norma. However, the boy's face was a blur, probably because the photograph was so old parts of it were turning white. Nevertheless, Nancy took note of the things which she had found. When she turned around, she found that Norma's suitcase was open. She saw that there was a black sweater in it. Feeling it, she remembered how Norma said that she poured water on her sweater after the murder. This seemed strange, since the sweater wasn't soaked at all. Nancy put it away and got out of the room.

The fourth suspect was Gary. Nancy found that the laptop required a password to log in.

"Of course," she muttered. "If this laptop is lost, someone can copy the novel which Gary wrote, even when Gary himself has a backup copy."

She looked at the suitcase and the things that were inside. She found no photograph but found a notebook. She found out that the notebook contained the notes which Gary himself took when thinking about the ideas for his novel. The title of the newest novel, it stated, was Twilight Visitor. "Hmm…" she muttered. "Sure sounds intriguing."

But then, when she stood up, the cell phone fell down from the pocket and crashed on the floor. "Oh, no!" murmured Nancy, distressed. "Maybe I broke it!" She tried to turn the switch on, but it didn't work; the phone was broken.

"Darn. Well, I'll need to convince my dad to get two new phones, one for me and the other for Ned."

The guests had just finished the dinner. "That was marvelous," Amy said, wiping her mouth.

"Now, I should be getting back to my study," said Gary, standing up.

Frank noticed that he had to call Nancy. "I should warn her to get out of the suspect's room," he thought. Dialing the number, he heard nobody answer. "Hurry, Nancy!" he murmured.

Nancy didn't notice that Frank was calling her. She kept investigating. However, when she heard footsteps behind her, she froze. Someone was coming toward the room in which she stayed.

"Oh, no!" she thought. "The guests have finished their dinner!"

Nancy thought of a way out, but she knew that the door could not be used. She looked at the window. There was a cliff right outside the window, and it was too dangerous to try climbing up to the roof.

The person was indeed Gary. He took out the key to his room and put it into the keyhole.

Nancy heard the sound and thought desperately of a way out.

"What should I do? What should I do?" she murmured, frantically looking around.

The key turned. In the next second, someone opened the door.

Postscript: Wow, yet another cliffhanger. Will Nancy be caught? How can the other detectives help her? And why was there a photo of Nancy's mother in Amy's room? Why was Henri keeping such a detailed account of Nancy's previous mysteries? The mystery still continues. In the next chapter, there will be a shocking twist that will surprise you, guaranteed!